


A Matter of Trust, Ch4-Pt3

by Dressari



Series: Distant Worlds [12]
Category: Creators Keepers of Mana, Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures, Furry (Fandom)
Genre: CKoM, DMFA - Freeform, Elements, Furrae, Mana - Freeform, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-06 02:58:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11591505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dressari/pseuds/Dressari
Summary: Agitated by the unprovoked attack, Fa'Lina gathers together a militia of teachers and able students to fight off the Hollows that some how managed to penetrate the school's wards. A stronger force draws her to another invader, one she intends to banish with all her might.





	A Matter of Trust, Ch4-Pt3

Fa'Lina stared at the remains of the aggressor her javelin like tendril had just put an end to. Black, grey and blue, it was a creature that had become a shadow of their former selves; a demon once perhaps, but little more than an emotionless shell of a monster, created and led by another.

The body dispersed and crumbled away into dust until nothing was left of it, leaving only her attacking weapon jammed into the plaster and brick of the school's wall. Her arm had suffered a minor cut along with a few tears in her clothing, evidence of the protective aggression she had assumed, caring less for her safety as she dispersed the creatures as she found them. Fortunately none of them could even match her skill let alone her magical prowess and became little more than an annoyance.

There could not have been many left, but there was no telling how many he had planted in the shadows, or even how long he had been preparing this brash insult. Another one of the creatures flew past behind her, set alight in a blazing flame as a tendril released it with a throw. Fa'Lina had not been alone in handling the defence, many of her tutors and some of her more able students rose to the occasion, protecting their home and herding those who could not fight to safety.

It was a relief that so far that not one student or tutor had suffered anything fatal. But her senses did pick up on an unusual... reading moving around some corridors down, yet her omniscience could not determine exactly what it was. And that angered her greatly, because few creatures could avoid her watchful eye in her own home, and none of them she would consider an ally.

“Hah, at least they're not fireproof!” exclaimed one of the tutors with a fiery attitude, a smirk on her face showing the satisfaction she held in finishing off one of the strange creatures. The black furred jackal keeping her tendrils formed swept them to one side, low to the ground and took one of the creatures off their feet as they attempted to charge her. The winged angel slammed to the ground face first, and any recovery was cut short as a purple leather axe with a sharp edge slammed on the gap between its chin and shoulders, effectively cutting the head off the monster off. “Nice job Aary, we'll make a real fighter out of you yet.” complimented the blonde haired Cubi.

“Ugh, I know how to fight Blaze, I just don't put it as a priority to practice,” complained an aggravated grey-furred feilne Cubi with long flowing purple hair. A small mark was present on her cheek where she had suffered a blow. “I think that was the last one Fa'Lina.” said Aaryanna, confirming there were no longer any threats in the hall.

The headmistress however stormed her way out, heading towards another corridor further towards the nearby wing of the Academy. “Quickly escort the non-combatants to safety, there are more still on the prowl.” declared Fa'Lina without so much as an emotion in her voice and left out of sight down the hall.

The remaining two Cubi cast glances at each other, both shared a lot of confusion regarding whatever these things were. Clearly Fa'Lina knew something but was hesitant to say anything at all, it was a highly unusual stance from their boss, especially in such a dire circumstance.

“I'll go after her, you got the kids from here Aary?” asked the jackal already making her way after Fa'Lina. Frankly it wasn't a question needed asking but she was just being polite.

“Yeah, sure Blaze, just what is up with these things and what's got Fa'Lina so... despondent?” she wondered, helping one of the students that took cover from some flying spells earlier. The boy wasn't injured, just shaken; no one expected a direct attack inside the walls.

“Don't know- don't care, questions can wait til later! Get to safety Aary.” she replied sternly and chased after the headmistress. Assuming she didn't teleport again Fa'Lina couldn't be too far away.

 

⁂

 

“Got any of those potions handy right now? Any that explode?” asked a male Cubi brandishing a very giant pipe wrench in two hands with a tense grip. His heart raced as he backed away slowly a few steps as several unusual black hued creatures approached he and another.

“You know how dangerous that is,” replied a female Cubi with a long snake like body, her wings spanned out into several cutting scythes kept at the ready. Her confidence with them however was far less than that if she DID have a vial to help with this. But the ingredient pouches and few vials she did have were nothing of the sort they could use to even the odds.

The female brushed a length of her crimson hair over her shoulder as she slithered back. Together, she and Kyle had managed to fend off and eliminate two of these strange aggressors but now they were outnumbered, and worse yet one took on the shape of a Cubi. No amount of talk or communication eased the tension, only the hollow yellow eyes stared them down.

“Kyle, run, while you have the chance I shall hold them back for you to escape.” she told the student.

“No way! I've got a big enough wrench for all of them, and I'm not leaving you miss Quintiss!” said the fox Cubi buffing his chest and holding the wrench to the side ready to swing it. The boy was thankful he had this in hand when the trouble started, although normally stained with grease he was more than happy to soak it in blood to protect the teacher from harm. But in reality, he was scared and full of adrenaline as his hand shook with the makeshift weapon.

A sudden shuffle of his foot must've startled the creatures as they leapt to their attack, one directly lunged at Kyle with startling speed. He reared the weapon back, but before he could strike Quintess darted in the way, her tendrils cutting into the creature, but only holding it at bay. Her strength wasn't enough and she was pushed back, colliding with the student and sending him stumbling back.

“Ngh! Quintess!” blurted Kyle as he clambered to his feet and attempted to shield her from an oncoming attack from the flank. He swung hard and the head of the wrench crunched against the head of the Insecti-like creature, the plating cracking upon impact and sending it rolling off to the side, skidding against the ground. “HAH! Take that you overgrown bug!”

The 'victory' was very short lived as a number of cold black tendrils suddenly wrapped around his body and arms. With incredible strength they lifted him from the floor and straight into the nearby wall with a crash... and a loud snap. Kyle made no audible groans as the impact knocked him out stone-cold and he dropped the weapon he held to the floor.

“Kyle!” screamed Quintess, fearful for the boy's safety. She struggled with her attacker until finally managing to shove off the armoured creature before blasting them with a quickly chanted spell. The force of energy blew it back and into a nearby pillar, causing another crack in the academy's architecture.

The creature held Kyle suspended in the air and checked the side of his neck where a symbol was brightly lit against his body. It scratched at it with the tip of its finger and appeared... disappointed in the find, dropping him to the floor into a heap. Suddenly the roar of Quintiss's voice rumbled in the air as she pounced towards the creature, her wings sharpened into a barrage of spikes but her attack only landed upon the black Cubi's own wings as it shielded itself.

Even with the dead look of their eyes, they still held some self-preservation in a fight. The creature Cubi batted its wing off to the side, brushing off Quintiss's aggressive attack. Fortunately her limber snake body afforded her great stability, and with a shove of her body she countered the defence by ramming her weight at the Cubi, sending it to the ground in a tumble.

Quintiss slapped her hands together and a blast of energy erupted between them, she chanted another spell in her mind and parted them to reveal a ball of blue fire ready to be launched. The lamia tutor jammed her palms outwards towards her target, but her aim was knocked as something collided with her from the back. The ball of fire crashed harmlessly into the ceiling instead, dispersing since there was nothing flammable above.

Cold, icy pincers gripped around Quintess throat as the bug creature had leapt upon her back. They clamped down but provided only as much as a distraction as the experienced Cubi held her breath and allowed her magical nature to take over. She then bucked her body violently, thrashing around slamming her attacker into walls and pillars alike in an effort to shake it off.

Then a sharp, splitting pain struck into her back and she let out an ear splitting scream before fumbling to the ground with a sore skid. It sapped the energy she had out of her body, it burned so much it felt like she was in the middle of a fire herself. Quintiss lifted herself up on both hands with a shake and the creature that rode her scurried into her view, one of its claws dripped with blood where it had no doubt stabbed her. In the background she could see the other two creatures approaching, for all their effort it felt like nothing had been done to slow these ones down.

What was going on? The Academy was supposed to be safe, why was this happening? Questions that came too late to her mind as she winced and reformed her wings into scythes again, though she was in pain she wasn't about to just lie down and die. She just had to hold out, surely the headmistress would be along any second now.

Any second... right? She asked herself as they drew closer.

Any second...

...Right...?

Light then filled the room, followed by a deafening ring that echoed off the walls. It sounded so fast it wasn't a wonder if a bolt of lighting had just passed through the area. The energy wasn't just any lightning spell either, but a cone like blast of sharp embers had just engulfed the armoured creature. The flames stuck to the body, but it simply crumbled to the ground as if the life was snuffed out the moment it was hit with the spell. Before even the last few shreds of what remained hit the floor, another figure darted into her vision, it was so fast Quintess was sure the lines between the background and... whoever this was blurred together.

Adrian made no hesitation, throwing himself into the fray, the sight of two injured residents was enough to trigger his protective like nature. He didn't earn the nickname 'Guardian' for just sitting around when someone needed help. His fist connected with the face of the threat that resembled another cubi, the force of his blow was jarring but not enough to blow it away. Within his other hand he wielded a short barrelled Elevas Blaster, effectively designed to be a shotgun. Snapping like the wind between targets, he turned and aimed the barrel at the bug-like Hollow, pulled the trigger and felt satisfaction as the shards ripped through the creature, throwing it to the ground in a crumpled heap before crumbling to nothing. His attack continued without pause as he turned on the spot, throwing his leg around and taking away the remaining creatures legs. It hit the deck with a crack and then another loud gunshot rang in the halls.

The final threat crumbled into the ground before letting the wind whisk the remains away into nothing.

The Creator popped the side of the gun, and a jet of hot vaporized air blasted from it. It was the trade off from having a Mana powered weapon, depending on the design you either had to deal with power shortages, or overheating. At least ammo was less of a problem when it came to Elevas, but that didn't always make it a positive thing.

Adrian quickly knelt down to the prone Lamia. “Miss, are you okay?” he asked her, but received no response as she appeared to have passed out. Blood on her back trickled down her side and soaked her tunic; likely the injury had caused her to faint. Perhaps a good thing, it would make healing the injury less painful, immediately he put his powers to work and touched the bloodied area.

As the wound started to close- he was then struck by a heavy force slamming into his front with frighting speed and sent him sailing back, crashing into the ground with a scrape. A quick tumble put Adrian back to his feet and his senses, now focused, detected two new auras... one of which was... unsettling but powerful. The other had a good deal of Fire attached to it.

And speaking of fire he saw just that as he looked to whom ceased his healing attempts, a tall white poodle with a very agitated look around her. Her eyes cut through his armour and almost stared directly into his spiritual being, she was clearly angry with teeth grit. The other whom had taken a cautious check on the unconscious lamia beheld a pillar of fire in a free hand, and kept a stern watch on Adrian as he stood back up.

An air of silence fell on the hall. Gathering the tall imposing one was the individual he sought Adrian cautiously asked, “Are you Fa'Li-”

“You have some gall to attack MY domain,” growled Fa'Lina cutting him off.

Puzzled Adrian held his hands defensively at waist level, “...Excuse me? I think you have me mistaken- OOF!” cut off again he jumped to the side, with a leap and a dash a series of white tendrils topped with snapping maws lashed out and struck the ground. “Woah! Hold on a second!” he yelled using his powers over the surrounding air to blow the tendrils off course as they chased him.

“It has been centuries, and NOW you appear, throwing your weight around like you can do whatever you desire!” said Fa'Lina with a calm but aggressive tone, sending barrage after barrage of her flailing tendrils after her target. She threw a few beam like spells attempting to flank the armoured one's evasion efforts. He was quick, nimble, the spells he countered with were powerful too... nothing less than she expected of, “Brelioro, you just could not leave things well enough alone could you!”

Adrian performed a sharp backflip avoiding a few more tendrils, at the same time he dropped a small pink sphere that hovered just a foot or so from the floor. Once he was far enough away, the small sphere exploded, visibly distorting the surrounding area. The tendrils that were caught within the distortion soon turned and twisted upon each other. It left him a short breather as Fa'Lina was caught within the gravity of the area sucking it around, even pulling the imposing one towards it as her shoes skid along the ground while she tried to pull back on the force. Scarily enough Fa'Lina was proving to have an incredible deal of strength and resisted its pull very well.

“Stop and listen! I'm not your enemy and I'm not this Brelioro guy!” demanded Adrian, hoping to cease hostilities, but given the aura of the other cubi was trying to flank him, he got the impression that was going to be a request that fell of deaf ears. Turning quickly to face the jackal, Adrian raised his arm up as she came bearing down on him, her wings were engulfed in flames as were the six tendrils that came down on top of him. They collided against a large, translucence shield that formed between them, making a whip-like slap as the shield rippled from the impact. “Please, stop! I don't want to hurt you!” he said again.

Lucia had no intention of listening however, having already seen the injury Quintess suffered it was clear he had ill intentions. Shaping all of her tendrils into two large blocks she slammed them against the shield again, hoping to either damage or shatter it. Neither occurred and only pushed the strange attacker back some feet. But a short distance was all she needed for her next attack. Blasts of fire erupted from both of her hands and with a quick shunt the flames lashed out and engulfed the whole area in a blue flame. The jackal smirked, confident that even his armour wouldn't be able to withstand such intense heat, or cook him in his own suit.

The smirk was replaced by one of astonishment however, as the flames were... absorbed, dying out from the huge swatch it produced. The fire leaped into the palms of her foe and become little more than a flicker in his own palms. “Wha-!?” Lucia then let out a scream as the flames were directed back towards her and shielded herself with her red and yellow feathered wings. But she felt neither the heat, nor the burn, not even a warmth as she peered through one eye to see the fire had fanned around her instead, until they dispersed.

It left her puzzled, Lucia expected to have been turned to a crisp, yet her opponent just stood there while she took an uneasy step back. A fist suddenly collided with the armoured one again, Fa'Lina's pink clad hand darting into view and sending him off to the side for a second time. Only this time he was prepared and only skidded some distance but remained standing. A crack had formed on his helmet from the repeated blows.

Fa'Lina appeared a little frazzled from dealing with the vortex that still hummed behind her, now free from its effects. “I must admit that was a cute trick, hindering my teleporting abilities like that is a feat few can do, but I am not surprised even in your case Brelioro,” she said with a deathly glare.

“I told you I'm not-” again his words fell on death ears as she lunged again, “Seriously!?” he blurted, whatever it was about him that reminded her of this Brelioro has certainly caused a real bad trigger. This time the tall poodle Cubi attacked at a shorter range to avoid risking getting trapped again, she was playing it smarter, her swipes were amazingly quick.

Sadly not fast enough it, Adrian grew tired of this, he just needed her to stop for one second. BOTH of them needed to stop as the jackal once again joined in, hoping to overwhelm him together. A few attacks landed amongst the many he deflected and avoided others. He needed to turn the tables against them, even the odds, spotting an opening he grappled the jackal being the smallest of the two and with a heavy shove and a blast of his Luna element he threw the jackal into the larger aggressor.

Fa'Lina managed to catch Lucia but the force of the blow was still enough to make her tutor crash into her body, the headmistresses losing her footing some and stumbling back, slipping to one knee.

Thanks to the barrier Lucia managed to remain standing but the blow dazed her senses and caused a ring to sound in her ears. “Damn it,” she cursed trying to shake off the stun.

“I am real sorry for this!”

Lucia then felt a cold metal bar strike her between the shoulder and neck, a buzz snapped through her body like an electric shock had just attacked her nerves. Vision blurred, limbs weakened as the jackal felt herself slip to the side, the last thing she saw was an object rounding at face level before she could feel nothing else.

Adrian stumbled back a little disheartened as the jackal collapsed to the side and to the ground unconscious, a long retractable baton was in hand and it buzzed with a snap of electricity. He panted a little out of breath and readied himself twirling the bludgeon with a flourish to face Fa'Lina. She appeared, rather calm despite one of her allies taken out of the fight, but her same glare remained.

“You are despicable, after all this time what would prompt you with this attack?” she asked him, “Was what you done not enough? Or are you to simply finish what you could not begin to start with.”

“Lady, I have NO idea what you are talking about!” gasped Adrian between breaths.

“You feign ignorance as have before, you have not changed, even if your appearance has.”

“I keep telling you I am not Brelioro, I'm here to help, I came for answers.”

“Your only answer is mired in deceit! You never help anyone you meet without an agenda!”

Fa'Lina shot forward charging at Adrian once again as he dropped into a defensive stance with his only weapon in hand.

“Headmistress, stop!”

At the call of another voice Fa'Lina did so, her shoes ground against the tiled floor as she came to a screeching halt. Although she did not drop her aggressive stance, her tendrils with their signature heads flailed around waiting for her command, “Tanner! Remove yourself from harms way!” she demanded.

The blacked haired leopard student from earlier had put himself between Adrian and Fa'Lina, fearfully blocking the headmistress's way. “Wait, hear me out please, he healed Relina earlier, one of those creatures they hurt her. If he didn't happen to appear in the room we were hiding in, she might've died.” he explained frantically.

Fa'Lina let the aggressive stance she held fade as she looked upon Tanner's face, she saw no lie, no stretch of truth in his words. And while she could not determine the entirety of what had transpired, she garnered enough from the younger Cubi's thoughts and her own sixth sense to see Relina was resting safely, if but alone. With a stern glare she looked past Tanner, pushing him to the side, “If you are indeed not Brelioro, who are you, and why do you bear his mark on your chest?” she demanded to know.

Adrian retracted the baton and let out a sign of relief, “I can answer your questions for you, but, with due respect, we should see to anyone that is injured first. I can't sense any more Hollows at the school, so we should be safe for now.” he explained still a little on edge. The Warp aci he travelled here with finally came out of hiding and floated to his side appearing nervous.

To Fa'Lina at least that explained a little of how he managed to get in the school now.

“You have a point, but you stay within my sight, until I am satisfied, understood?” she declared, rather than receive a vocal reply a small box was suddenly tossed to her, along with two more as her 'guest' detached them from his armour. “What are these?”

“Effectively disarming myself... save for my powers, a show of good faith I hope.” he replied.

Fa'Lina raised an eyebrow, it was a start at least.

 


End file.
